Full Text of SR0811 102nd General Assembly
SR0811 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | SENATE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened | 3 | | to learn of the death of retired Professor Adriaan Jan de Witte | 4 | | of Urbana, who passed away on January 19, 2022; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, Professor de Witte was born to Leendert and | 6 | | Elizabeth de Witte in Bergen op Zoom, the Province of Brabant, | 7 | | Netherlands on January 16, 1924; as a young student, he was | 8 | | required to declare allegiance to Hitler's Reich during the | 9 | | German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II; he | 10 | | refused, choosing instead to flee the Nazi regime to join | 11 | | Dutch pacifist war resisters in the Pyrenees Mountains of | 12 | | Spain; he was captured by the Gestapo while attempting to exit | 13 | | Vichy France and imprisoned in a French provincial jail before | 14 | | being shipped by railway to work in a German concentration | 15 | | camp; he escaped and traversed eastern Europe on foot to the | 16 | | coast of France; he was transported by boat to England, where | 17 | | he joined Dutch volunteers in the British Army and served as a | 18 | | medic for the rest of the war; and
| 19 | | WHEREAS, Professor de Witte received honors in Mathematics | 20 | | and Physics from the University of Groningen in the | 21 | | Netherlands in 1946; he earned his master's degrees in both | 22 | | Mathematics and Physics from the University of Leiden in 1948; | 23 | | he married Maria E. Boom on November 11, 1948; and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, Professor de Witte first embarked for work in the | 2 | | oil business to Indonesia; while he was fascinated by the | 3 | | natural world of the tropics, he was repulsed by the human | 4 | | misery and conditions of colonial rule; alongside his wife and | 5 | | daughter Bette, he emigrated to the United States in 1951; he | 6 | | then held a series of research scientist roles, working at | 7 | | Shell Oil in Houston, Texas in 1951, Conoco Oil in Ponca City, | 8 | | Oklahoma from 1952 to 1955, and at the headquarters of Gulf Oil | 9 | | in Harmarville, Pennsylvania from 1955 to 1960; he left the | 10 | | corporate oil industry in pursuit of academic freedom; and
| 11 | | WHEREAS, Professor de Witte became a full professor in the | 12 | | Department of Mining, Metallurgy & Petroleum Engineering at | 13 | | the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) when he | 14 | | was 36 years old; he taught UIUC's first class on world mineral | 15 | | economics; he also spent five successive summers as a visiting | 16 | | scholar at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Falmouth, | 17 | | Massachusetts; he retired in 1987; and
| 18 | | WHEREAS, Professor de Witte was a keen learner and a free | 19 | | thinker; he was raised in the Calvinist tradition; he was | 20 | | fluent in many languages, including English, Dutch, French, | 21 | | German, Spanish, and Latin, with a passing familiarity of | 22 | | Greek and Gaelic; he loved American idioms; he was an avid | 23 | | classical music listener and an arts aficionado; he was a |
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| 1 | | lifelong birdwatcher, and he participated in the Audubon | 2 | | Society's annual bird count and camped in Allerton Park to | 3 | | count owls; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, Above all, Professor de Witte was an activist; he | 5 | | supported the civil rights movement in the early 1960s and | 6 | | held a weekly silent vigil against the Vietnam War along with a | 7 | | handful of fellow protestors in front of the Alma Mater statue | 8 | | on the UIUC campus as early as 1965; he remained adamantly | 9 | | opposed to all future wars and was a pacifist his entire life; | 10 | | and
| 11 | | WHEREAS, After retirement, Professor de Witte spent many | 12 | | summers with family in Nova Scotia, where he passionately | 13 | | photographed the "green flash" over the ocean at sunset; he | 14 | | was a naturalist and soon became a preservationist, purchasing | 15 | | 25 acres of woodlands in Cape Breton and deeding them to be | 16 | | kept forested in perpetuity; he acquired a 150-year-old Cape | 17 | | Cod-style cottage and had it designated a Provincial Heritage | 18 | | Property, outfitting it exclusively with antiques mostly from | 19 | | central Illinois; he also collected and fixed antique clocks; | 20 | | and
| 21 | | WHEREAS, Professor de Witte was affectionately known as | 22 | | "Papa" to his children and "Opa" to his grandchildren; and
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, Professor de Witte was preceded in death by his | 2 | | wife of 70 years, Maria; his parents; his sister, Janny Roest; | 3 | | and his brothers, Rinus and Leendert de Witte; and
| 4 | | WHEREAS, Professor de Witte is survived by his children, | 5 | | Bette Leach (Bob), Maarten (Jill), and Beverly Ann Fraser-de | 6 | | Witte; his grandsons, Jesse Fraser (Lindsay McDonald), Seth | 7 | | Fraser (Erin McKenzie), and Skylar Denny de Witte; and his | 8 | | great-grandchildren, Ewan McDonald-Fraser, William | 9 | | McDonald-Fraser, and Thoreau McKenzie-Fraser; therefore, be it
| 10 | | RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL | 11 | | ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of | 12 | | retired Professor Adriaan Jan de Witte and extend our sincere | 13 | | condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew and loved | 14 | | him; and be it further
| 15 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 16 | | presented to the family of Professor de Witte as an expression | 17 | | of our deepest sympathy.
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